Lyceum & Book Club - Week 13 - Lecture Notes on the Western Schism

1309 - 1417 - Competing Popes

So we have had a break between the two sectors of Christendom - east and west - Christian against Christian, for often mercenary reasons.

And then we had the Black Plague sweep through Europe in which the people saw half the population in some places wiped out in a matter of weeks and saw the clergy they depended upon run away to the hills abandoning the common people as surely as any secular prince.

If these events hitting each successive generation were not enough - we now have competing popes, excommunicating each other at the drop of a hat and threatening to place entire communities under interdict. It would be enough to make anyone start questioning the very foundations the Church authority was based upon.

1378 - 1417 - Competing Popes aka The Western Schism, Papal Schism

In the 12th and 13th century the Papacy held the reins of influence as the Church’s backing of a secular ruler was a powerful tool among the general population. We can see in the early Crusades the position of monarchs acting as the pope’s field marshals over the Church’s armies to glory, which brought prestige among the general population for the pope’s office.

And the threat of excommunication was a frightening aspect to even kings. Being excommunicated could turn a whole population against even the most powerful of kings. And yet, even then, you had Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, excommunicated twice during a Crusade with no ill effects, either to his soul or earthly power.

By the 14th century, secular power was no longer dependent upon the Church. Perhaps the fact that the Church now contained enough second sons who competed with their relatives for power and resources was a contributing factor to the holy shine wearing off.

The 14th century saw secular power challenging Church leaders and trying to take the reins from the Church and consign the Church to a role as another tool for a King’s state agenda.

Article for members to read before continuing:

Tough Facts About Philip IV, the Iron King

https://www.factinate.com/people/45-tough-facts-about-philip-iv-the-iron-king/

King Philip IV of France wanted to use the finances of the Church to pay for his war with the English. Pope Boniface VII refused and issued an edict that stated kings were not allowed to tax the clergy without the permission of the pope.

So Philip issued an order that forbid any export of gold or silver, etc without the King’s permission, knowing this would stop the flow of donations to the church and pope from wealthy French Catholics.

He then arrested one of Pope Boniface’s clerical allies in France on trumped up charges in 1301.

The Pope issued an official document that demanded the Bishop be released, claiming the pope had power over the king and threatened to punish the king if he did not release the Bishop.

Then in 1302, the Pope went so far as to issue a papal bull that decreed “it is necessary to salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff. - declaring papal supremacy - Unam Sanctam.

To which King Philip IV of France replied : “Your venerable conceitedness may know that we are nobody’s vassal in temporal matters.” Philip tried to get his legislative body in France to declare the pope illegitimate and have him removed. He accused the pope of blasphemy, sodomy, sorcery and heresy. Rumours were started that Pope Boniface had murdered his predecessor in order to acquire his position as Pope.

To which Pope Boniface VIII wrote up another papal bull that would excommunicate King Philip IV of France and put all of France under interdict. Agents of the French King found out what the pope was intending, broke into the papal residence, kidnapped the Pope, held him as a prisoner for three days and beat up Pope Boniface VII so severely,he died within a month of being released. With no excommunication or interdict issued.

The next pope, Pope Benedict XI absolved King Philip IV and his subjects of actions against Pope Boniface.

But he did excommunicate the thugs who beat up Pope Boniface.

Pope Benedict died within 8 months of being elected to the papacy.

It was rumored Philip had Benedict poisoned.

At this point Philip V forced a deadlocked conclave (through bribing enough French Cardinals to vote his way) to elect Clement V, who was French and a personal friend to the King, to the Papacy in 1305.

Clement refused to move to Rome even while the curia remained in Rome. The French king had been pushing for Clement to move his court to Avignon and make the move official. In 1309, Clement moved his court/ curia (the administrative offices that run the enterprise) to the papal enclave in Avignon because he said Rome had become too dangerous. And indeed, non-Roman/Italian popes in Rome were surrounded by powerful Italian families from which earlier popes had come from. So there was a very real intimidation factor to being in Rome and not being Roman/Italian.

But in France, the popes also faced an intimidation factor from the French king and his court allies.

From wiki:

During its time in Avignon, the papacy adopted many features of the Royal court: the life-style of its cardinals was more reminiscent of princes than clerics; more and more French cardinals, often relatives of the ruling pope, took key positions; and the proximity of French troops was a constant reminder of where secular power lay, with the memory of Pope Boniface VIII still fresh.

The papacy now directly controlled the appointments of benefices, abandoning the customary election process that traditionally allotted this considerable income. Many other forms of payment brought riches to the Holy See and its cardinals: tithes, a ten-percent tax on church property; annates, the income of the first year after filling a position such as a bishopric; special taxes for crusades that never took place; and many forms of dispensation, from the entering of benefices without basic qualifications like literacy for newly appointed priests to the request of a converted Jew to visit his unconverted parents. Popes such as John XXII, Benedict XII, and Clement VI reportedly spent fortunes on expensive wardrobes, and silver and gold plates were used at banquets.

Overall the public life of leading church members began to resemble the lives of princes rather than members of the clergy. This splendor and corruption at the head of the Church found its way to the lower ranks: when a bishop had to pay up to a year's income for gaining a benefice, he sought ways of raising this money from his new office. This was taken to extremes by the pardoners who sold absolutions for all kinds of sins. While pardoners were hated but popularly regarded as helpful to redeem one's soul, the friars who were commonly regarded as failing to follow the Church's moral commandments by ignoring their vows of chastity and poverty and were despised. This sentiment strengthened movements calling for a return to absolute poverty, relinquishment of all personal and ecclesiastical belongings, and preaching as the Lord and his disciples had.

For the Catholic Church, an institution embedded in the secular structure and its focus on property, this was a dangerous development, and beginning in the early 14th century most of these movements were declared heretical. These included the Fraticelli and Waldensian movements in Italy and the Hussites in Bohemia (inspired by John Wycliffe in England).

Furthermore, the display of wealth by the upper ranks of the church, which contrasted with the common expectation of poverty and strict adherence to principles, was used by enemies of the papacy to raise charges against the popes; King Philip of France employed this strategy, as did Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor. In his conflict with the latter, Pope John XXII excommunicated two leading philosophers, Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham, who were outspoken critics of the papacy, and who had found refuge with Louis IV in Munich. In response, William charged the pope with seventy errors and seven heresies.

The proceedings against the Knights Templar in the Council of Vienne are representative of this time, reflecting the various powers and their relationships. In 1314 the collegium at Vienne convened to make a ruling concerning the Templars. The council, overall unconvinced about the guilt of the order as a whole, was unlikely to condemn the entire order based on the scarce evidence brought forward.

Exerting massive pressure in order to gain part of the substantial funds of the Order, the King managed to get the ruling he wanted, and Pope Clement V ordered by decree the suppression of the order. In the cathedral of Saint Maurice in Vienne, the King of France and his son, the King of Navarre, were sitting next to him when he issued the decree. Under pain of excommunication, no one was allowed to speak at that occasion except when asked by the Pope. The Templars who appeared in Vienne to defend their order were not allowed to present their case—the cardinals of the collegium originally ruled that they should be allowed to raise a defense, but the arrival of the King of France in Vienne put pressure on the collegium, and that decision was revoked.

After Pope Clement V came six more French Popes who all abided by the preferences of the French crown.

In 1376, Pope Gregory XI, who also was French, was visiting Rome along with his Curia (which included the Cardinal) when he died in 1378. (some say he had moved his court back to Rome, but was in the process of moving back to Avignon when he died.)

When Pope Gregory XI died in 1378 in Rome, a mob surrounded the conclave in Rome and demanded a Roman pope this time. Instead a compromise choice was elected Pope - Urban VI, who had not been a Cardinal when elected, as was traditional.

But he was neither French nor from Rome. He was from the Kingdom of Naples.

Even though the French Cardinals had agreed to elect Urban VI, it was under the duress of mob coercion if they elected anyone French this time.

They immediately started to conspire against Urban XI. And Urban, in truth, was a horrible choice as it was said that his elevation to pope went to his head and he was described as both an arrogant man and an angry one. (I’m not entirely convinced this conclusion by his fellow clergymen was not based on self-interest against what appeared to be a crusading reform minded pope)

He alienated his fellow clerics by trying to do away with gratuities and gifts to clerics as a way of doing business, forbidding Cardinals to accept annuities from rulers, condemning the luxury of their lives and the multiplication of benefices in their hands.

And he angered King Charles V of France by not moving his court back to France.

Five months after his election, the French cardinals declared his election invalid by way of mob coercion and the papal throne considered vacant.

So they then elected a Frenchman, Clement VII, as Pope who won the support of half of Europe, not only a split amongst the elite, we now had a split amongst the population - French vs Italian with secular allies or adversaries lining up according to secular political alliances.

The Church now had two opposing heads of the Church.

The two popes now proceeded to excommunicate each other

From wiki:

Sustained by such national and factional rivalries throughout Catholic Christianity, the schism continued after the deaths of both Urban VI in 1389 and Clement VII in 1394.

In the intense partisanship characteristic of the Middle Ages, the schism engendered a fanatical hatred noted by Johan Huizinga:when the town of Bruges went over to the "obedience" of Avignon, a great number of people left to follow their trade in a city of Urbanist allegiance; in the 1382 Battle of Roosebeke, the oriflamme, which might only be unfurled in a holy cause, was taken up against the Flemings, because they were Urbanists and thus viewed by the French as schismatics

When Pope Boniface IX died in 1404, the Roman cardinals said they would not elect another rival pope if the rival pope in Avignon, France would resign. The French rejected this and so another rival pope was elected in Italy.

In 1409, members of both papacies met in Tuscany, Italy and held a Council (that neither pope authorized) to try and resolve the issue. They decided they would depose both rival popes “for schism and manifest heresy” and elect a new single pope. Which they did - Pope Alexander V, who now excommunicated the two rival popes in Rome and France and they excommunicated him right back.

When he died a year later, he was replaced by another pope in the Pisa Papacy.

So we now have three competing popes.

Avignon, Rome and Pisa

From historyofyesterday.com:

According to canon law at the time, unless the current pope was dead, church councils could only be called by a pope. Hence, popes elected by cardinals without the current pope’s consent were not always seen as legitimate — which is what caused the problem of the “Great Papal Schism” in the first place.

In 1414, Pope Gregory, in Rome, called for another Council to resolve the issue. Since this one was called by a sitting pope, it had all of the proper legal backing in its decisions.

It was decided that all three popes should resign and a new pope elected. The Roman pope, Pope Gregory and the Pisan pope, Pope John, both resigned, but the Avignon Pope, Pope Benedict refused. As their last act of office, both Pope John and Pope Gregory excommunicated the French Pope for refusing to resign with them.

The people of Europe were getting a little tired of all this and most of the national leaders (and populations) of Europe, supported the efforts of this council and the two popes who were willing to resign in an effort to reunite the Catholic Church. So France and the Avignon Pope did not win any points by their continued actions.

In 1417, the same council elected a new pope, Pope Martin V, which effectively ended the schism. (Just to note - he was from an old and distinguished Roman family)

France was the only country to not recognize the new pope in Rome as the legitimate pope.

Until finally even the pope in Avignon realized the futility of continuing this farce and resigned in 1429, and recognized Pope Martin V as the rightful pope.

From historyofyesterday.com:

Pope Pius II — before his death in 1464 — had also changed the canon law to allow church councils to be called even without the pope’s consent, ending the possibility of such a problem ever arising again. That law is still in place today.

From wiki:

There was also a marked decline in morality and discipline within the church. Scholars note that although the Western Schism did not directly cause such a phenomenon, it was a gradual development rooted in the conflict, effectively eroding the church authority and its capacity to proclaim the gospel.This was further aggravated by the dissension caused by the Protestant Reformation, which created a lot of unrest.